The gatekeeper is an old and decrepit gatekeeper, sweeping the floor in front of Minglun Hall. At present, there is only one Lingxing Gate left in the county school and the front of Minglun Hall is still somewhat decent. The yard looks clean and tidy, but Minglun Hall The roof has been covered with thatch, and there are even small trees growing lushly.
The doors and windows of Jinde Zhai and Xiuye Zhai were closed, and there was no sound of students reading for a long time. The "official office" given by the king is located in the three halls behind Minglun Hall, which is both his office and residence. The grass in the yard was knee-deep and foxes were infested.
Wang Ci is from Luoyang, Henan Province. He failed in many examinations and only became a "Sui Gong Sheng" when he was in his forties. The so-called Sui Gong Sheng was also called "Bi Gong Sheng" by the ancients. Among the scholars, the junior students have been doing it for a long time and have been taking exams. Those who do not want to be promoted can pay an annual tribute when they reach the age, which is considered to be qualified to be an official. This can be regarded as the official path of the imperial examination, but it is one level lower than Wu Mingjin's "big selection". He can only become a minor official such as county magistrate, exhortation, and edict.
In this way, Wang Ci filled up the post of Lingao Jiaoyu, who was an idle official in Lengcao. His salary was extremely meager, and he was not as good as the county magistrate who could take care of his family. I only brought a family member named Wang An with me to take care of my daily life.
Although the utensils in the house looked a bit shabby, Wang An kept them clean and tidy due to his daily cleaning.
Wang Ci fell down on a bamboo couch and took a few gulps of the cold tea prepared on the coffee table. Wang An was not in the house, so he was probably looking for extra money somewhere else - the salary for teaching was really pitiful, Lingao was a very small county, the literary style was not prosperous, and there was no extra income from teaching in the county school. The life of the king's master and servant was really miserable.
Wang Ci heard that his servant had found some kind of job recently and could earn a few dollars a month to supplement the family's income. He didn't think much about it in the past, but today he suddenly became alert - Wang An is not working for the Australians, is he?
The more I think about it, the more possible it becomes. The only person who can find work anywhere and anytime in Lingao City is Kun Thief! He thought that Wang An would ask him properly when he came back later. If you are really working for the Kun thief, it would be better to tell him not to do it. These people are good at charming people, don't confuse Wang An too.
Thinking of the Australians, Wang Ci could only sigh. He was greatly stimulated by the Australian education, and Lu Da's rhetorical question left him speechless - can he afford to be educated without discrimination? Australians are truly educated.
It's just that Australians are very educated, and they don't teach the Four Books and Five Classics that they are familiar with, and even the words are written differently. If this continues, wouldn't it mean that we will teach a group of "Australian scholars"?
Wang Ci was not a corrupt scholar. When he went to seek advice from Wu Nanhai, he asked them to help organize the school fields because he was interested in their practical knowledge of managing the world. Unexpectedly, the Australians were so ambitious that they not only abused common characters, but also changed the writing style, and even made up their own "Pinyin characters"! This was simply unbearable for him.
We must come up with a way to prevent them from continuing to mess around like this!
While Wang Ci was thinking about ideas, the janitor from the county school suddenly ran in and shouted:
"Master Wang! Master Wang!"
"What's the matter? How unbecoming are you in such a hurry!" Wang Ci waved the sleeves of his patched Confucian shirt with dignity, and picked up the missing teacup.
The doorman gasped: "Kun - the Australians are here to pay their respects!"
"Ah!?" Wang Ci shook his hand and the tea spilled onto his clothes.
"Is it Mr. Wu?" Perhaps Mr. Wu, who was in charge of Xuetian, came to discuss something with him.
"It's not Mr. Wu, it's Mr. Xiong -" Xiong Buyou is responsible for dealing with the county government offices because of his relationship with the Foreign Commercial Committee. Almost all the county government officials know him.
This Australian Mr. Bear has never come to his place in the past. Wang Ci felt strange. Why did you come to the county to study for no reason? He can't sell land here, and there are no government servants to dispatch. The idle government office is extremely cold. What do Australians like?
Could it be that the conversation he had with Lu Da just now was reported to the thief Kun, and that Mr. Xiong came to look for him? Now Wang Jiaoyu panicked. As a scholar, even if the other party comes with soldiers, even in a one-on-one fight, with my own physique, I will definitely be the one to suffer. Being beaten doesn't count, just sweeping the floor gracefully.
"Just say, Master, um, he's not here."
"Well," Menzi said, "Master Xiong knows that you are--"
"Did you bring anyone with you?"
"I brought two servants." The disciple was very alarmed when he saw Master Xiongyu, and quickly added, "Master Xiong also brought gifts, and he was very polite."
Wang Ci breathed a sigh of relief: I brought a gift just to beat him. He quickly said: "Please, please."
Xiong Buyou came to the hall generously with his entourage and gifts. He simply bowed and said his name. There are no official titles. The ancients couldn't figure out what titles such as committee members the Time Travel Group had.
Wang Ci looked at the man in front of him. He was tall and strong. He was wearing a small double-breasted coat like a thief, with a canvas belt tied around his waist, and a small green cloth bag slung across his back. There was a machete across his waist. Although he didn't know Xiong Buyou, he had admired his name for a long time. I heard that this man swaggered into the city with hundreds of pirate weapons last year and came to the county government office to meet Wu Daling. From then on, I kept hearing that he was in and out of the county government office and was the leader of the Kun thieves' external communications.
"Student Wang Ci, I wonder what Xiong Xiong has learned here?" Wang Ci pretended to be calm and said.
"Are you the master of instruction?"
"It's a student." Wang Ci responded carefully.
"I'm so sorry for you, I've ignored you these days, haha," Xiong Buyou looked around with a smile, "I didn't expect your conditions here to be so bad!"
"As the ancients said, living in a humble room..."
"We will talk about the things of the ancients later, let's talk about the things of today first." Xiong Buyou got straight to the point, "I heard that Wang Jiaoyu went on a long trip today?"
"Yes, one of the student's disciples donated to the library yesterday. The friendship between teachers and students should always be paid in person." When Wang Ci heard that this was the question, he answered openly.
"I heard that your disciple passed away unfortunately, leaving orphans and widowed parents in a difficult situation?"
Even knowing this, Kun Thief is really well-informed. Wang Ci nodded and sighed: "Exactly, I have left a widow and three children at home, and without a supporter, I don't know what will happen in the future. Now the school and classmates have gathered together to pay tribute, and now It’s about passable.”
As for what to do in the future, Wang Ci didn't even want to think about it. This family left behind a small amount of meager property, and before the body of the head of the family was cold, some members of the clan came to take it away from him. A home for orphans and widowed mothers will definitely suffer. I have a little advice, and I am a foreigner, so I can't help at all.
"This is a little bit of our thoughts." Xiong Buyou took out a white paper bag from his bag and "ask Wang Jiaoyu to pass it on."
Wang Ci was stunned for a moment, how could Kun Thief do this? Could it be that this scholar and the thief Kun interacted on a daily basis? I've never heard of it myself. What kind of memorial ceremony should I send to such a stranger?
"How can I do this?" Wang Ci thought to himself, there is something wrong with this money and he must not accept it, so he just shook his hands randomly, "On the one hand, I am a complete stranger, and on the other hand, it will hinder my reputation——"
"So, Wang Xunyu still thinks we are 'thieves'?"
Only then did Wang Ci realize that he was speaking the truth, and quickly explained: "No, no, the student is saying: You and my student have never known each other, and now they are orphans and widowed. Send them to pay homage, I'm afraid, I'm afraid If you want to talk about things and ruin people's reputation, please think twice."
These words are quite appropriate. Xiong Buyou did not continue to pursue the case, but the paper bag did not take it back. He just said:
"This is not my opinion alone, it represents the entire Australia Group. Since we have lived in Lingao for a long time, this is our hometown. This is to do our part for the scholars in our hometown. There is no need to teach. Speculation.”
The tone was very strong. Wang Ci originally wanted to walk away and show off his character as a scholar-bureaucrat of the Ming Dynasty, but looking at Xiong Buyou's eager eyes and the machete in his waist, he nodded slightly:
"I will metabolize this feeling for her." No matter what, this is a good deed. Furthermore, he couldn't see how the thieves could take advantage of this orphan and widowed mother.
Xiong Buyou felt despised when he saw this sour guy accepting it coquettishly. He was originally prepared to be scolded by the teachings, but he didn't expect that the so-called "scholar's character" was nothing more than that.
"This memorial ceremony is a three-hundred-yuan circulating coupon," Xiong Buyou pointed to the paper bag. "When Rexiao comes out, we will receive an additional fifty-yuan subsidy every month. Although it is meager, it will probably not be a problem to make ends meet."
Wang Ci was stunned for a moment. Is there still a monthly subsidy? ! My mind didn't turn around for a moment, and I was stunned.
"Wang Jiaoyu!" Xiong Buyou saw him stunned and shouted quickly.
"Ah? Oh, the feelings in Ci Ci's heart are very complicated, both happy and worried. He is so happy that with such a sum of money, the scholar's family will not be discouraged. The tribesmen who are eyeing a meager income are also happy when they see Australian hands. I will not dare to make mistakes. This family has been given the gift of rebuilding. What is worrying is that the intentions of the thieves are very obvious. In the past, they showed kindness to the ignorant people in the countryside, and then they won over the officials in the county government. Now, their His hand reached out to the scholars again. Step by step, his thoughts were meticulous and his plans were thorough. He was worthy of the sentence "His heart can be punished".
Wang Ci now feels that he made a mistake in handing over the school land to the Australians - when he can give money and rice to the students in the autumn, won't everyone know that this is the work of the thieves? Thinking of this, Wang Ci felt filled with regret. I was so short-sighted that I let the thief put his hand in for some money.
Xiong Buyou's face turned green and red while looking at the teaching, and he didn't know what he was thinking. In fact, Wang Ci also overestimated himself. According to the long-term plan of the executive committee, the work of winning over local intellectuals will always have to be carried out. Regardless of whether there is such a thing as Gakuda. No scholar in Lingao can escape! ~!
